HousingWire’s Monday Morning Cup of Coffee takes a look at news from the weekend, with more coverage on bigger issues.
Bank of America reportedly is the subject of the most Consumer Financial Protection Bureau mortgage complaints and offered a large number of cures for borrowers, according to news reports. In fact, the bank has offered some form of relief in 22% of the CFPB consumer complaints filed against the big bank, The Charlotte Observer reports.
About 15,000 mortgage-related complaints have been filed with the Bureau regarding BofA since December 2011. Borrowers, servicers and the public can access the consumer complaint database online. The CFPB responded to the public database, noting that it works hard to resolve issues related to mortgages that were acquired via the firm’s takeover of subprime lender Countrywide Financial Corp.
“As a result of the Countrywide acquisition, Bank of America became the largest mortgage servicer at the peak of the housing crisis, and the servicer of a disproportionate share of loan types impacted by the economic downturn,” the bank said in a statement.
Several big banks are in the clear after a U.S. District Court Judge in New York dismissed an antitrust lawsuit filed against Bank of America, Barclays and JPMorgan Chase among others over the LIBOR scandal, Bloomberg reports.
The banks were accused of causing plaintiffs damages by conspiring to depress LIBOR and understating borrowing costs. Bloomberg says the judge dismissed the case because the litigants could not show they were harmed.
As the residential sector experiences increasing home price growth, the commercial real estate side of the market also is going up, according to DebtX, a marketplace for loans.
DebtX says the price of performing commercial real estate whole loans ‘strengthened’ in February.
“Pricing in the performing loan market remains strong, and the CMBS universe has shown particular improvement,” noted DebtX managing director Will Mercer. “Highly competitive pricing for new originations is moving up through the secondary markets, and the hunt for yield in the capital markets continues unabated.”
Also a friendly reminder that starting today, the Federal Housing Administration will increase its mortgage insurance premiums for the third time in two years.
No bank closings were reported in the past week, according to the FDIC.
kpanchuk@housingwire.com
